[vannrox]

Not the kind of thing you read about every day.

[B Knotts]

Oh.

That kind of gas.

Never mind.

[Alberta's Child]

The Innu trace their problems with poverty and substance abuse to government relocations that forced them to give up their nomadic way of life.

Well, that's just precious, isn't it? They trace their problems to government relocations, so now they're asking the government to come and take their children away?

They also attribute their current state to the chronic physical and sexual abuse their children suffered when they were forced to attend Christian residential schools from the 1950's through the 1970's. Today, more than half the 300 children in Sheshatshiu between the ages of 5 and 14 have sniffed gasoline, and at least 20 percent are regular users.

Interesting chain of logic. A child who is between the ages of 5 and 14 today was born between 1988 and 1997.

[guitfiddlist]

They've been deprived. Once enrolled in proper American public schools, they'll be sniffing quality products such as glue, cocaine, and crystal meth in no time.

[Dog Gone]

The officers also said that sniffing gas is not illegal in Davis Inlet, so they are not allowed to take the bags away from the children. "All we can do is put them out when they set themselves on fire," one officer added.

I guess that's better than letting them freeze to death.

Arguably.

[weikel]

Let the addicts kill themselves no WOD this kind of thing is nature's genepool filter on stupidity.

[PsyOp]

This is your brain on high-octane..

[stilts]

I find the plight of these children in this deadend town to be horribly sad. As for the reasons for there terrible plight I am less moved by the historical relocations than I am by the parents violent and abusive treatment of their children. Sounds a bit like life in Hell.

[Jonathon Spectre]

Um, what's so great about sniffing gasoline?

I'm confused.

[Byron_the_Aussie]

Weren't 'land rights' and 'self-determination' going to fix all this, Vannrox?

That's what we've been promised here, where the situation is just as bad, amongst desert aboriginal children.

[Consort]

...Innu flag.

[Centurion2000]

The children, residents of the village of Sheshatshiu, where 1,200 of the 2,000 members of Labrador's Innu Nation live, are addicted to sniffing gasoline

Darwin Award to an entire village ... criminy these people are stupid.

[Old Professer]

"All we can do is put them out when they set themselves on fire,"

I know I am going to get beat-up for saying this, but that's the funniest sentence I've read in days.

[Elsie]

The officers also said that sniffing gas is not illegal in Davis Inlet, so they are not allowed to take the bags away from the children.

---

Just WHO is the ADULT here!!!???

Just slap the crap out of them, take their bag, take their arm, take them BACK to their parents, and slap the crap out of THEM!

And then, tell them, "If I EVER catch you doing this again........."

[Restorer]

>>One government official who insisted on anonymity said that the Innu in Davis Inlet also requested a guarantee that if doctors discovered the children had been sexually abused, no charges would be brought against the parents.

Talk about your guilty consciences.

[CougarGA7]

Well if they are having problems with sniffing gas all the time, I would suggest they cut back on the Walrus Burgers.

[drgnwrks]

Got a Match?

Poof!

Sizzle!

Sizzle

Calling Darwin! Darwin are you there?

[GalvestonGal.com]

Click here to read the full text of - "Letter from Innu People to Queen Elizabeth II" dated 1997 (since we are having a history lesson here):
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/41/052.html

This is a partial quote:
"The Labrador part of Nitassinan was claimed as British soil until very recently (1949), when without consulting us, your government ceded it to Canada. We have never, however, signed any treaty with either Great Britain or Canada. Nor have we ever given up our right to self-determination.

The fact that we have become financially dependent on the state which violates our rights is a reflection of our desperate circumstances. It does not mean that we acquiesce in those violations.

We have been treated as non-People, with no more rights than the caribou on which we depend and which are now themselves being threatened by NATO war exercises and other so-called 'development'. In spite of this, we remain a People in the fullest sense of the word. We have not given up, and we are now looking to rebuild our pride and self esteem. "

I can be quite cruel and biting when it comes to some pompus crooked politician, but it caused me sadness to read some of my fellow Freepers cruel comments about suicidal children.

There is so much that is beyond a group, much less a child, to control - the grinding wheels of distant decisions has resulted in children's deaths.

I can only learn more, learn about the cruelty of the Taliban, learn about these tribal people caught in something beyond their control and pray for them.

I pray that a miracle visits them and their spirit is renewed with hope.

[GalvestonGal.com]

Here is an information sheet on this tribe:
http://www.survival-international.org/tc%20innu.htm